History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 1 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

Prerogatives conferred thereby.

That this right was not then a barren title may be assumed from the fact, that it involved mercantile interests of the most important character, within the limits named, which were guarded with the utmost jealousy for centuries. The prerogative claimed by the crown included, 1st, the royalty of granting the liberty of fishing for pearl, coral, amber, and all other precious commodities. 2nd. The power of granting licences to fish for whales, sturgeon, pilchard, salmon, herring, and all other fish whatsoever, as then exercised in Spain and elsewhere. 3rd. The power of imposing tribute and custom on all merchant ships, and fishermen, trading and fishing within the limits of the sea, subjected to private dominion, in the same manner as if enjoying the state’s protection in its dominion on land. 4th. The regular execution of justice, by protecting the innocent, and punishing delinquents for all crimes committed within the limits described, protection being due to all who paid homage and tribute. 5th. The power of granting free passage through such sea to any number of ships of war belonging to any foreign prince, or of denying the same according to circumstances, in like manner as foreign potentates may grant or deny free passage of foreign troops through their territories by land. This right being exercised in peace as well as during war, all foreign vessels whatsoever, whether ships of war or others, navigating within those seas, and there meeting any of the ships of war or others bearing the colours of the sovereign of such seas, “are required to salute the said ships of war by striking the flag, or lowering,” as we have just mentioned, “one of her sails, by which sort of submission the saluters are put in remembrance that they have entered a territory in which there is sovereign power and jurisdiction to be acknowledged, and protection to be expected.”[629]

Although from the earliest periods of history successive nations have periodically claimed the sovereignty of certain seas, England appears to have been the only one of either ancient or modern times which not merely asserted and maintained that power in the English Channel and neighbouring waters, but was fully acknowledged to possess it by other nations, who admitted “the striking or veiling the bonnets” to be a ceremonious homage in recognition of her absolute sovereignty.

First accounts of revenue and expenditure, A.D. 1421.

Towards the close of the reign of Henry V. an account is, for the first time, published of the revenue of the kingdom. It appears to have amounted, in 1421, to the sum of 55,743l., obtained chiefly, if not altogether, by duties upon commerce; the customs and subsidy upon wool alone amounting to more than one-half, or 30,000l.; while the small customs, and a duty of twelve pence in the pound in value on other goods, realized 10,675l. Out of that year’s revenue there was expended no less than 38,619l.[630] in the custody and defence of Calais, Scotland, and Roxburgh, and their “marches;” while the custody and defence of England and Ireland were maintained for the comparatively moderate sum of 6,990l. The officers of customs at London and the outposts received 821l. for their services, but the salaries of “dukes, earls, knights, esquires, and the abbess of Shene,” amounted to 7,751l. A sum of 4,370l. was likewise charged on the customs for “annuities,” but no mention is made of how they were appropriated. A lump sum of 3,507l. appears to have been paid, without distinguishing the items, “to the king’s and queen’s household and wardrobe; the king’s works; the new tower at Portsmouth; the clerk of the king’s ships; the king’s lions, and the constable of the tower; artillery; the king’s prisoners, ambassadors, messengers, parchment, and the Duchess of Holland;”[631]—a curious enough medley, but perhaps not more promiscuous than some of the estimates of our own time, frequently smuggled in one sum through Parliament, from the difficulty and delicacy of defending many of them if produced in detail.

Law for the admeasurement of ships and coal barges.

Immediately before the close of the reign of Henry V., an Act[632] was passed requiring all ships to be measured according to prescribed forms, so as to ascertain their tonnage or capacity, and preclude the possibility of one ship deriving advantage over another. By a clause in this Act, the barges, or “keels,” then employed in the conveyance of coals from the colliery wharves to the ships in the Tyne were also required to be measured and marked by the Crown. From that day, until now, every keel contains 21 tons 4 cwt. of coals, and in the north of England the capacity of a ship is still better understood by the number of keels she can carry than by her registered tonnage.

Henry VI. crowned, A.D. 1422.

Marauding expedition of the Earl of Warwick.

It is not our province to notice the long and terrible wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster which followed the accession of the infant Henry VI. to the throne of England.[633] War, in all cases, would seem to have encouraged hordes of marauders to fit out armed vessels, too frequently under the pretence of the national defence, but practically for their own gain and aggrandisement. But the war which now raged for supremacy between the rival claimants to the crown of England was, perhaps, the one of all others which offered the greatest encouragement to these disgraceful expeditions. Forms of licence were hardly necessary, as the flags of Lancaster or of York were sufficient covers to many crimes. Thus, under plea of aiding the cause of the House of York, the Earl of Warwick, “the king-maker,” fitted out a fleet on his own account, with which he attacked, in the Straits of Dover, a fleet of Genoese merchantmen bound for Lubeck, with a cargo of Spanish merchandise, of which he captured six, rendered worthless twenty-six, slaughtered one thousand of their crews, and plundered merchandise to the value of 10,000l. sterling, with the loss, it is said, of only fifty of his own men. In the face of such an act as this, perpetrated by one of the most exalted of the English nobility, who filled the highly responsible office of governor of Calais, the reader of English history need not feel surprised at the acts of piracy which too frequently disgrace its pages. On the dethronement of Henry VI., after an inglorious reign of nearly forty years, the Earl of March, who had shortly before become Duke of York by his father’s death on the field of Wakefield, was proclaimed king of England as Edward IV.